"Bang!"
The impact echoed sharply. Gary braced himself for pain, but nothing happened. After a second, he slowly opened his eyes, and saw a familiar back standing protectively in front of him, Pikachu perched on the shoulder.
"Yo, Gary. How'd you get yourself into such a mess in such a short time?" Ash tossed a half-smile over his shoulder.
"Ash!! How are you even here?!" Relief washed over Gary's face. He had genuinely believed he was done for. The moment Mewtwo attacked, he had already accepted that he was finished.
But Ash appeared like a bolt of lightning, blocking the attack for him. If Ash had been a woman, Gary would have married on the spot.
"Don't look at me like that. You're creeping me out." Ash rolled his eyes and turned toward the Pokémon on the battlefield, and the man commanding it.
The Pokémon fully encased in strange machinery could only be Mewtwo. And the person standing calmly at the Trainer's podium… Giovanni.
This was Ash's first time seeing Giovanni in person. Though Giovanni wore the face of a gentle middle-aged man, his presence felt crushing. His aura alone warned that provoking him meant being ground to dust.
"Ash!!" Misty and Brock rushed in moments later. Their eyes immediately went to the collapsed Blastoise, Arcanine, and Nidoking, and their expressions hardened. If they still held hope that Lorelei was wrong about Giovanni, that hope instantly evaporated.
"Gary, are you alright?" Brock asked. They had just watched the volcano match together a few days ago. Seeing Gary's entire team strewn across the ground was jarring.
"I'm fine. Ash came just in time." Gary stood shakily, recalling his unconscious Pokémon. "But how did you get in? Only one group is allowed through the doors."
"Ash sensed something was wrong. So we rushed in," Misty said, glancing coldly at Giovanni.
"Mr. Giovanni… why? Why are you the leader of Team Rockets? You were the pride of Kanto's Gym Leaders…" Misty's voice trembled. Her admiration for Giovanni had been genuine, and shattered instantly.
Giovanni shrugged lightly, as if her question were trivial."So Lorelei told you. Listen well, girl: I was the leader of Team Rockets long before I was the Viridian Gym Leader. That is who I am. Being a Gym Leader was merely my public identity. The Rockets are what gave me power, resources, and position. If I started as a Gym Leader, do you think I'd be standing where I am today?"
His casual explanation stunned everyone. Morality aside, his logic was brutally sound. Team Rockets gave him resources the League never could. Without that foundation, he likely wouldn't have become Viridian's Gym Leader in the first place.
For Misty and Brock, lifelong members of the Gym system, Giovanni's words were a bombshell.
Ash, however, kept his eyes on Mewtwo.
This was definitely the genetically engineered Pokémon Blaine had mentioned. And it was heavily restricted, its entire body bound by stabilizing machinery suppressing its true power.
Mewtwo
Type: Psychic
Gender: Female (based on vocalization, though normally genderless)
Level: Peak
Ability: Pressure
Stats: All six base categories rated S, including their maximum potential
Even these incredible stats were "normal" for Mewtwo, after all, it was created using the genetic blueprint of Mew and various other powerful Pokémon.
What drew Ash's attention was the dual reading: Peak and Champion Peak.
The latter should be Mewtwo's true level, while the former represented its current, suppressed state.
Ash could clearly feel that the machinery wrapped around Mewtwo was restraining its power. But he also sensed that the machinery alone could never suppress a being like Mewtwo. The real limiter was Mewtwo itself, it was willingly holding back.
Aside from the machine, its power matched exactly what Blaine had described: strength forcibly bound down to the Champion level. Had it not lost its essence, with its talent it might already have reached a God tier.
Then, suddenly;
'Who… are you?'
A calm, mature female voice echoed inside Ash's mind. For a split second he mistook it for Gardevoir, but the tone was unmistakably different.
The only one who could be speaking to him telepathically… was the Pokémon in front of him.
'My name is Ash. I'm a Trainer who will become a Pokémon Master.'
He had no idea why Mewtwo initiated contact, but replied honestly.
'Ash, there's something on you, something calling to me, what is it…?'
Ash stiffened.
Gardevoir was exposed?!
No, he quickly discarded the thought. If Gardevoir had been detected, Mewtwo wouldn't sound this calm. Its own mental essence was something it could never fail to recognize.
So what was Mewtwo sensing?
Ash thought for a moment, then his expression tightened.
The Mega Evolution item.
Besides Gardevoir's essence, the only thing that might "call" to Mewtwo was the Mega Stone stored in his spatial backpack.
Both objects were stored in spatial equipment, but the difference was simple:
Gardevoir's essence existed inside Gardevoir's body, and the Poké Ball further concealed it.
The Mega Stone, however, was an exposed powerful item inside a spatial pocket.
Mewtwo could sense that. It simply couldn't reach the mental essence.
'Why aren't you answering?'
There was faint confusion in Mewtwo's telepathic voice.
Ash finally replied:
'Because I'm not sure how to explain. Something I carry may indeed belong to you… but as long as Giovanni controls you, you won't have the chance to use it.'
Mewtwo fell silent, as if trying to understand. The meaning escaped it.
Do all humans speak in riddles…?
At that moment, Giovanni finally spoke.
"You must be Ash."
He sounded satisfied, after all, the atmosphere he had created had successfully crushed Gary's morale and weighed heavily on the newcomers. That would make both battling and capturing Ash easier.
Unfortunately, Ash was the one person completely unaffected by "atmosphere."
"I am Ash. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Giovanni. When I learned you were the leader of Team Rockets, I honestly didn't want to believe it. I wondered how the League allowed a criminal leader to become Kanto's strongest Gym Leader."
Giovanni chuckled.
"That's a matter between me and the League. The League is not as noble as you imagine."
Ash cut him off, voice turning cold.
"Spare me your provocations. Since we're enemies now, I only want one answer: Will you fight me as the Viridian Gym Leader… or as the leader of Team Rockets?"
Giovanni's eyebrows lifted slightly.
"No wonder you've come so far at your age. Few people your age have this mindset. Tell me, Ash, what if I say I'll battle you as the leader of Team Rockets?"
"Then I'll fight with everything I have and send you to prison."
"Oh? Does that mean if I fight as a Gym Leader, you won't use your full strength? I'm curious, what is your 'full strength,' exactly?"
Giovanni wasn't mocking. He was genuinely intrigued. Ash's public strength wasn't impressive enough to threaten any of Giovanni's main Pokémon. The only anomaly was the Bulbasaur that had defeated Koga's Crobat. But that sort of outburst couldn't possibly be free of consequences.
Ash refused to answer.
"Why don't you find out yourself?"
Giovanni smiled.
"In that case… how about this? I'll battle you half as a Gym Leader… and half as the leader of Team Rockets."
Even Ash paused at that one.
And far away, watching through the monitor, Lorelei blinked in confusion.
"What kind of bizarre rule is that…?"
Beside her, an elderly woman with a hunched back and wrinkled face spoke:
"This Giovanni is truly interested in that boy. He still seems to have the idea of recruiting that young man into Team Rockets," beside Lorelei was an old woman with a wrinkled face and a slightly hunched body.
If anyone from Kanto were here, they would recognize at a glance that this seemingly frail old woman was actually one of Kanto's Four Elites, Agatha, known as the Ghost Elite!